PayPal vs Payoneer: Which is a Better Gateway to Accept Payments?

It’s important to think about making and receiving payments when you’re running an online business with a remote staff. It is the first thing you research and brainstorm after completing your business plan.

Virtual payment options are a great relief to online businesses and provide an inexpensive and fast way to transfer and receive money. Wire transfers to another country usually take 10-15 days and it’s relatively expensive.

When it comes to online payments, PayPal and Payoneer are the two most popular and reliable platforms. We will give you a comparison between them to let you know about the features and services.

PayPal

Description

Founded in 1998, PayPal is the pioneer online payment platform. It initially operated under the name Confinity. In 2000, the company worked in collaboration with X.Com, which is an online banking company created by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX. Now, PayPal is the most widely used payment system around the world.

People around the world use PayPal for online transactions and online shopping. PayPal is among the top companies that offer you safe online money transfers. In 2014, PayPal set a record of 152 million active accounts used by people from Europe, the United States and Australia. Since then, they have expanded their network and added many Asian countries. PayPal now offers services in almost every country of the world.

You don’t need to register or create an account to make a couple payments through PayPal but if you’re planning to use it for the long term, it is more convenient to create an account. Creating a PayPal account is quite easy and free of charge.

Transaction Fee

The transaction fee charged by PayPal may vary depending on various factors. The PayPal charges will be different depending on which service you’re using for money transfer; whether you’re using your bank account, credit card, PayPal balance or debit card. PayPal credit is the best and cheapest option. Another factor is whether you’re making local transactions within the same country or you’re making an international transaction.

No matter what kind of transaction you’re going to make through PayPal, the transaction fees range from 0.3% to 7.4%. If a currency conversion is required, PayPal charges extra for that also. The good thing about PayPal is that the sender can decide whether he’s going to bear the charges or the receiver.

PayPal also offers you a Mass Payment feature through which you can make payments to up to 5000 people at once without any monthly fee. If you’re running a big business where you have to handle multiple payments every month, Mass Payment is the best feature that can easily be integrated into your website, and saves you hundreds of dollars.

Features

Shopping cart

Mass pay

Language preference toggle

PayPal smart connect

Gift certificates

PayPal for eBay items (Auction Finder)

Subscriptions and recurring payments

Buy Now buttons

Encrypted website payments, request money

Payment requests wizard

Settlement and reconciliation system

Shipping center

Sales tax calculator

Instant payment

Complaint process

Web services/API suite

Money back guarantee

Payoneer

Description

Payoneer was founded in 2005, with its headquarters in New York, United States. The former president of Visa and CEO of SWIFT are board members of Payoneer. The company also provides MasterCard services. The company is among the more well-known money transfer companies used by Google, iStock Photo, Airbnb, UpWork and Fiverr.

Payoneer services are available in almost 200 countries and include around 100 currencies. Payoneer not only provides money transfer services but also e-commerce solutions. With Payoneer’s referral program, you can get $25 for each referral that receives $100 for the first time.

Packages & Charges

Payoneer offers you rechargeable Master Cards that benefit both businesses and individuals. You get two types of accounts with Payoneer:

1) The account that doesn’t charge any annual fee and allows you to transfer money directly to your local bank account

2) The account available with a prepaid Master Card that charges you an annual fee of $29.99. This account type isn’t for businesses but for individuals.

Just like PayPal, Payoneer also offers mass payout packages for businesses that handle multiple transactions every month. Mass payout is further divided into three categories:

1) For small businesses, the mass payout supports at least 10 beneficiaries and a minimum of $10,000 in monthly payouts

2) For corporate businesses, it supports at least 20 beneficiaries and a minimum of $80,000 in monthly payouts

3) For Enterprise level businesses, it supports at least 200 beneficiaries and at least $250,000 in monthly payouts.

Payoneer charges you $2.99 for a local bank transfer and for a USD SWIFT transfer, there’s a charge of $15. For the transfer in EUR and USD, there is a 1% overall charge on the whole amount but it can’t exceed $10. The Payoneer transfers aren’t limited to the bank. You can also transfer money to your prepaid Master Card or transfer the amount to any global bank. In short, you can transfer money anywhere around the globe with few clicks through Payoneer.

With Payoneer, businesses can easily transfer salaries to their employees and individual contractors. You can also set your Payoneer account to transfer salaries automatically at a set rate. Moreover, the Payoneer services are safe and there’s no threat of money theft.

Features

Prepaid Master Cards

Global and Local e-wallets

API support

Direct bank transfers

International payments

Over 200 countries

Over 150 currencies

Multi-lingual customer support

Amazon disbursements

Payment requests

Third party payments

Payment History

Pass payouts

Conclusion

To sum it up, we can say that Payoneer has an edge over PayPal when you have to make larger transactions. For smaller transactions, PayPal and Payoneer work very much the same. Both companies have some restrictions in different countries but PayPal users in the United States enjoy a lot more than other countries. With Payoneer, you get the benefit of withdrawing money from any MasterCard branded ATM. On the other hand, through PayPal, you have to go with the regular online payment transfer system.

Both companies collaborate with other brands and businesses to refine the user experience. However, PayPal provides more products and services to their users than Payoneer. Through Payoneer MasterCard, you can make payments anywhere, whether online or in a physical store.

Now that you’ve seen the features of these two payment gateways, you can make the decision about which is the better platform for you and your business.